South Carolina utility worth uncertain, won’t be sold at ‘fire sale price’

NUCLEAR: South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster wants to sell state utility Santee Cooper, but no one is sure what it’s worth and lawmakers say it won’t go at a “fire sale price.”(Post and Courier, Associated Press)

ALSO:
• Walmart is now among the growing number of businesses, government agencies and public interest groups worried about having to pay for South Carolina’s Summer nuclear project. (The State)
• Georgia’s controversial Vogtle nuclear project reaches construction milestones following long delays and significant cost overruns. (Daily Energy Insider)

PIPELINES:
• Construction crews continue to prepare a West Virginia staging site for the Mountain Valley Pipeline although the project has not yet been approved by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. (WVVA)
• County officials in Virginia oppose the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline, but also want to know the cost of tapping the natural gas pipeline if the project moves forward. (Roanoke Times)

COAL:
• The EPA’s repeal of the Clean Power Plan and the DOE’s proposed subsidizes of coal power are earning praise from Appalachia’s lawmakers. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
• A coal operator says it will shut down a western Kentucky mine later this year. (Associated Press)

POLICY:• An unusual coalition of business and environmental groups oppose the DOE’s plan to boost nuclear and coal power plants, and are pressuring the Trump administration to shift course. (Associated Press)
• The director of an energy policy think tank whose political arm endorsed Trump says the proposal to mandate higher payments to coal and nuclear power plants is “excessive and unnecessarily distortive.”(The Hill)
• Kentucky politicians are divided on the Trump administration’s repeal of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. (Courier-Journal)• Arkansas’s top utility regulator questions the DOE’s proposal to strengthen the country’s grid by providing cost recovery for coal and nuclear power plants. (Arkansas Business)

FRACKING: Florida lawmakers are pushing to ban fracking in the state, though similar efforts failed last year. (WUSF)

TECHNOLOGY: Researchers at Georgia Tech and others have developed a ceramic pump that could allow molten metals at higher temperatures to be used for energy storage. (MIT Technology Review)

COMMENTARY:
• Virginia’s demand for electricity will continue to rise while dependence on coal and nuclear power diminishes, which is why new natural gas pipelines are needed. (Fredericksburg.com)
• Coal is under attack by human progress and modern economics – not environmental regulations. (Lexington Herald-Leader)